Sean Dillon's interest in the sport of speed flying came about in a way that exemplifies the modern nature of the sport: He saw a video on YouTube.
But it took years of practice and patience for the Squamish resident to feel comfortable taking to the skies.
The sport's origins date back to France in the late 1970s but only recently has made its way to North America. France hosted the first ever official speed flying championship race in 2007. It's a hybrid sport that has elements of paragliding, mountaineering, parachuting and skydiving.
Speed flying is a much faster experience than paragliding, with competitors using a smaller wing and travelling much closer to terrain.
Dillon said after witnessing the sport online in 2009, he was eager to try it out.
I ended up in Salt Lake City with Ozone, a company that makes wings, he said. They took me out for a week and it was just so much fun and so different.
A mountaineer by trade, Dillon saw tremendous potential for the sport in the backcountry areas of the Sea to Sky Corridor. A heli-ski and cat-ski guide since 2002, Dillon had reached a plateau in his skiing and wanted to find new areas to shred.
I was getting to the point where I was going to start BASE jumping with my skis, but it's hard on the equipment because you have to ditch your skis when you jump, he said. I saw speed flying and I thought, 'That's the answer.' It was definitely my ski mountaineering and profession that pushed me that way.
He said the sport gives him so many new opportunities to ski different local areas.
I just enjoy the speed and the freedom of shredding the mountain in a different way, he said. I get to ski and fly at the same time. I can ski a zone that no one would ski because it ends in a 2,000 foot cliff. I'm able to skim over to the zone, ski it and then fly the 2,000 feet down. In the summer, I love hiking and love not having to walk down.
But the new nature of the sport means the rules surrounding it are kind of cloudy.
We get in trouble lots because it's such a grey area because we're not supported by any association, he said. I can't join the paragliders association because I'm not a pilot and they don't accept my abilities as legit. Paragliders have to announce their launches and flight plans for aviation traffic and they're insured, but we sneak under that because the paragliders association doesn't accept us and we aren't under the rules of the ski hill.
Dillon said there's a big learning process with the sport and that it took him two years of training to be confident enough to jump the Stawamus Chief.
The wings have very sensitive controls and are very reactive even shifting your weight slightly will do something to your wing, he said. Learning winds is another big factor, especially for launch.
Tragedy struck the speed flying community earlier this year when Dillon's friend Jeff Bertoia died in a speed flying accident. Dillon said the risks are always present with the sport but offered ways to make it safer.
Mentorship and practice are the biggest things, he said. Ground handling is so important. Go to Nexen Beach or a soccer field and just practice launches and get used to the way the wings work in the wind that's the greatest thing a beginner can do.
He added that popular launch locations like the Stawamus Chief could offer signage, suggested times and launching points.
The Chief is awesome and could be super safe, but it can kill people if they don't have enough experience, he said.
Dillon, who spoke about the sport at the recent TEDxSquamish event, would like to form some sort of speed flying association to help get information out there. He noted there's about 50 people from Pemberton to Burnaby who speed fly and that working with other organizations would be huge for the group.
He said he's also had discussions with the Sea to Sky Gondola group in advance of the opening of the gondola in May 2014. Dillon said the entire flying community could benefit from the gondola and he hopes to foster a positive and educational environment at the new facility.
For more details on the sport, visit www.snowridersunited.com or give Dillon a call at (604) 849-1903.
